With Google removing the cache operator from its search service, Google has stopped supporting the noarchive directive in Google Search. The directive, the noarchive meta tag, would tell Google not to keep a cache copy of your page. Since Google doesn't have a cache anymore, there is no need for Google to support this directive.
It use to tell Google to "not show a cached link in search results." Google wrote back then, "If you don't specify this rule, Google may generate a cached page and users may access it through the search results."
Google kept a historical reference to this meta tag, moving it to the history corner of the documentation. Here is a screenshot of that section:
Here is what it showed before this change:
There was a lot of controversy on if using this would hurt your SEO - in which Google said it would not.
Google wrote about this new change, "The cached link feature is no longer available in Google Search results. You don't need to remove the meta tag, as other search engines and services may be using it."
Forum discussion at X.
